The Internet Archive’s Grateful Dead is a great collection of concert tapes. There are over 2,000 unique concerts. There are multiple recordings of most concerts. This series attempts to provide a simple interface to this collection by selecting one recording for each concert on a given date. Preference is given to tapes processed by the great Charlie Miller and sound board tapes. Not all shows are well recorded but the there are great moments here. Dig in and enjoy! You didn’t have to be there. Good Luck.

The Grateful Dead Version 2.0 ( 1979 – 1990 )

With the departure of the Godchaux’s in 1979, Brent Mydland joined the Grateful Dead on keyboards starting on April 16, 1979. Brent continued with the band throughout the eight’s and played his last show with the Grateful Dead was on 23 July 1990. The Grateful Dead, although dominated by the (non-leader) Jerry Garcia, are always defined by the keyboard player and how he interacts musically (on keyboards and on backing vocals) with Jerry. With the addition of Brent the band moved from the bluesy, slow, highly controlled style of the 1970 to a more open, faster and ultimately funk / R&B approach. Just listen to the transformation of Scarlet Begonia / Fire On The Mountain from its classic form in the late 1970s with a version played later in the 1980s. The crowds and arenas were bigger with 10s of thousands packing in to show. The sound system and the sound board recordings improve dynamically, especially with the introduction of digital recording technology (DAT). Jerry was hospitalized in 1986 in a diabetic coma induced by bad life style choices (to say the least) and with the help of Merl Saunders had to learn to re learn how to play the guitar.